Constructive Field Theory and Applications: Perspectives and Open Problems

In this paper we review many interesting open problems in mathematical physics which may be attacked with the help of tools from constructive field theory. They could give work for future mathematical physicists trained with the constructive methods well within the 21st century

Simplified models of electromagnetic and gravitational radiation damping

In previous work the authors analysed the global properties of an approximate model of radiation damping for charged particles. This work is put into context and related to the original motivation of understanding approximations used in the study of gravitational radiation damping. It is examined to what extent the results obtained previously depend on the particular model chosen. Comparisons are made with other models for gravitational and electromagnetic fields. The relation of the kinetic model for which theorems were proved to certain many-particle models with radiation damping is exhibited

Diffuse-Charge Dynamics in Electrochemical Systems

The response of a model micro-electrochemical system to a time-dependent applied voltage is analyzed. The article begins with a fresh historical review including electrochemistry, colloidal science, and microfluidics. The model problem consists of a symmetric binary electrolyte between parallel-plate, blocking electrodes which suddenly apply a voltage. Compact Stern layers on the electrodes are also taken into account. The Nernst-Planck-Poisson equations are first linearized and solved by Laplace transforms for small voltages, and numerical solutions are obtained for large voltages. The ``weakly nonlinear'' limit of thin double layers is then analyzed by matched asymptotic expansions in the small parameter $\epsilon = \lambda_D/L$, where $\lambda_D$ is the screening length and $L$ the electrode separation. At leading order, the system initially behaves like an RC circuit with a response time of $\lambda_D L / D$ (not $\lambda_D^2/D$), where $D$ is the ionic diffusivity, but nonlinearity violates this common picture and introduce multiple time scales. The charging process slows down, and neutral-salt adsorption by the diffuse part of the double layer couples to bulk diffusion at the time scale, $L^2/D$. In the ``strongly nonlinear'' regime (controlled by a dimensionless parameter resembling the Dukhin number), this effect produces bulk concentration gradients, and, at very large voltages, transient space charge. The article concludes with an overview of more general situations involving surface conduction, multi-component electrolytes, and Faradaic processes.Comment: 10 figs, 26 pages (double-column), 141 reference

Applications of the Mellin-Barnes integral representation

We apply the Mellin-Barnes integral representation to several situations of interest in mathematical-physics. At the purely mathematical level, we derive useful asymptotic expansions of different zeta-functions and partition functions. These results are then employed in different topics of quantum field theory, which include the high-temperature expansion of the free energy of a scalar field in ultrastatic curved spacetime, the asymptotics of the $p$-brane density of states, and an explicit approach to the asymptotics of the determinants that appear in string theory.Comment: 20 pages, LaTe

Quantum gravity at a large number of dimensions

We consider the large-$D$ limit of Einstein gravity. It is observed that a consistent leading large-$D$ graph limit exists, and that it is built up by a subclass of planar diagrams. The graphs in the effective field theory extension of Einstein gravity are investigated in the same context, and it is seen that an effective field theory extension of the basic Einstein-Hilbert theory will not upset the latter leading large-$D$ graph limit, {\it i.e.}, the same subclass of planar diagrams will dominate at large-$D$ in the effective field theory. The effective field theory description of large-$D$ quantum gravity limit will be renormalizable, and the resulting theory will thus be completely well defined up to the Planck scale at $\sim 10^{19}$ GeV. The $(\frac1D)$ expansion in gravity is compared to the successful $(\frac1N)$ expansion in gauge theory (the planar diagram limit), and dissimilarities and parallels of the two expansions are discussed. We consider the expansion of the effective field theory terms and we make some remarks on explicit calculations of $n$-point functions.Comment: 18 pages, 23 figures (75 files), format RevTex4, typos corrected, references adde

On two aspects of the Painleve analysis

We use the Calogero equation to illustrate the following two aspects of the Painleve analysis of nonlinear PDEs. First, if a nonlinear equation passes the Painleve test for integrability, the singular expansions of its solutions around characteristic hypersurfaces can be neither single-valued functions of independent variables nor single-valued functionals of data. Second, if the truncation of singular expansions of solutions is consistent, the truncation not necessarily leads to the simplest, or elementary, auto-Backlund transformation related to the Lax pair.Comment: 8 page